Reuben C. Franklin Jr. runs the City of St. Augustine from Dec. 17. The commission appointed him interim city manager on Monday night, and the assistant city manager was the only person who applied for the job.

The city posted its own account of that vote on Tuesday afternoon. It calls the vote unanimous and prints no roll. It also gives the term a start date and no end date, where the memorandum on the dais asked for Dec. 17 to June 17. Who moved it, who seconded it and how each of the five voted are not in it.

The date that is in it twice, and the date that is not in it

The release gives the start date twice. Thursday, December 17, upon David Birchim’s retirement, once in the subheading and once in the opening sentence.

It gives no end date.

The memorandum on the dais did. The action item asked the commission to appoint Franklin “starting on December 17, 2026 and ending on June 17, 2027, or at a future date as determined by the City Commission,” which is six months with a trapdoor in the second clause.

What the release says instead is that the permanent hire “will be made by the newly seated commission in early 2027.” Early 2027 is not June 17.

A manager hired in February leaves four months of his own appointment unused, and a board that has not hired one by June has to act again, on an item somebody has to put on an agenda.

Which is fine.

It is simply not established, and the document that would establish it is the one nobody can read yet.

Where the minutes are

Monday’s agenda approved two sets of minutes on consent, the Sept. 14 shade meeting and the Sept. 23 special budget meeting. Monday’s own minutes go to the meeting after Monday, which is Oct. 26 at five in the Alcazar Room.

The city’s portal lists that meeting as Agenda Coming Soon, with no published file of any kind attached to it. So a release written by the communications department is the only published account of a vote on who administers this city, and it stays that way for about two weeks.

The rest of Monday

Three other things sat on that agenda and the release carries none of them. Item 10.A was the recommendation to name the property at 865 Fish Island Road, presented by the communications director who wrote the release about the manager.

Item 9.A.1 was Ordinance 2026-23 on first reading, which raises four parking penalties to $100 inside a boundary. Item 8.C.1 was Resolution 2026-36, approving Flagler College refunding revenue bonds in an aggregate amount not to exceed $18,000,000.

The city published nothing about the three. There is no highlights release for Oct. 12 anywhere on the News Flash, and the three items sitting in the city’s own news category are this appointment, Florida City Week, and a fee change that took effect two weeks ago.

One day

Birchim’s last day of city service is Dec. 16. Franklin’s appointment begins Dec. 17.

The board that made that appointment will be gone before anybody makes the permanent one. On Sept. 28 it asked the city manager for a list of the people interested in his job, and on Monday it got a list with one name on it and appointed him.